Fifty years on, Le Mans winner still rooted for Ford

Chris Amon helped bring first overall victory in France to Detroit automaker with the GT40

From left, Bruce McLaren, Henry Ford II and Chris Amon on the victory podium of the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.

It’s an iconic image in motorsport, the photographer capturing one of Ford Motor Company’s greatest triumphs as well as one of its greatest embarrassments. Two Ford GT40 Mk. IIs thundering side-by-side along the short pit straight of Le Mans’s legendary circuit, rooster tails of spray streaming behind them.

On the same lap, with only one to go in the 24-hour race, and following orders by Leo Beebe, Ford’s head of racing operations, not to race to the finish line, the pale blue No. 1 car of Ken Miles and Denis Hulme is lined up with the black No. 2 car of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. Beebe further decided that a photo finish featuring all three of the remaining team cars (eight had started) would be the icing on the cake of a sweet victory at the 1966 event – after two years of crushing failure in putting an end to Ferrari’s domination. The third Mk. II, driven by Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson, was 12 laps down, in a solid third place. In that picture, it is shown keeping a respectful distance behind the other two cars.

But, while all three cars got the chequered flag just feet apart for the photo finish, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), organizers of the Le Mans event, had other ideas regarding the tie between the Nos. 1 and 2 cars. It informed Ford that the difference in the cars’ starting positions would be taken into account if it came to a close finish. Since the McLaren/Amon Ford GT40 started approximately 20 metres behind the Hulme/Miles car, it had covered slightly more distance over the 24 hours and would be declared the winner.

All three Ford GT40s reach the end of the 1966 24 Hours of Le MansFord

A month shy of his 23rd birthday, Amon had won the historic race — one of the youngest race car drivers ever to do so.

Now 72, Chris Amon, MBE, lives in his native New Zealand. After Le Mans, he went on to spend a long, if not overly successful, 13 years on the Formula One circuit, with numerous teams, including Ferrari, March, Matra, Cooper, BRM and others. Though smooth and naturally quick, he was often saddled with unreliable machinery — he has been called “one of the best F1 drivers never to win a championship grand prix.” After a crash while practicing for the 1976 Canadian GP at Mosport, he retired from active racing and returned home.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Ford’s inaugural triumph at Le Mans — its cars would continue to win the endurance race in 1967, 1968 and 1969 — and the company’s return to the Circuit de la Sarthe with its new GT race car, Amon corresponded with Driving’s Brian Harper.

Brian Harper: When you joined the Ford works team, how confident were you that the GT40 could win Le Mans? Up until the 1966 season, the car’s success had been rather spotty.

Chris Amon: I had been involved with Shelby/Ford team off and on since 1964, when I drove a Cobra Daytona Coupe at Le Mans. In 1965, the McLaren team for whom I was working was contracted to build a lightweight version of the GT40, which I ran in three Group Seven races in the U.S., these being the forerunner of the Can-Am [race series], which started in 1966. This meant that I was involved in development of both this car and other GT40s.

I co-drove with Phil Hill at Le Mans in 1965, with one of the first 7.0-litre cars. I think we were leading when the gearbox failed in the early hours of the morning. The sister car was driven by Ken Miles and Bruce McLaren, and they had a similar problem.

We were certainly confident the GT40 could win Le Mans and, equally as a driver pairing, we [Amon and McLaren] were confident that we had as much pace as any other [driver] pairing in the Fords.

I wouldn’t say we were confident we were going to win; in a 24-hour race there is so much that can go wrong. [But] we were certainly hopeful and optimistic.

BH: How did you and Bruce split driving duties?

CA: The car could run for approximately one hour 20 minutes to one hour 30 between fuel stops. This depended on conditions … as you used less fuel in the wet. Our aim was to do single stints in daylight hours and double at night, the idea being trying to get some sleep during the double. I think that worked for Bruce, but I didn’t get any sleep. I did, however, enjoy a couple of long hot showers.

BH: By 1966, was the Ford GT Mk. II and its big 7.0-litre V8 superior than the Ferraris and other cars you were racing against?

CA: The Mk. IIs were clearly superior speed-wise to the opposition at Le Mans. [They] had been in 1965, as well; the long Mulsanne Straight suited us. [We] probably had a top speed advantage of 20-plus miles per hour.

Note: Unlike earlier GT40s, which used smaller-displacement V8s, the Mk. II was powered by a modified version of the 427-cubic-inch [7.0 litre] V8 from the Ford Galaxie, an engine used in NASCAR stock cars at the time. Though the car’s chassis was approximately the same as the British-built Mk. I chassis, it was redesigned and modified by Shelby American in order to accommodate the larger, heavier 427. A new four-speed gearbox was built to handle the more powerful engine, replacing the ZF five-speed used in the Mk. I. The Mk. II and IV were rendered obsolete after the FIA changed the rules for 1968 to ban unlimited capacity engines. The Mk. I, however, with its smaller V8, was able to race.

Carroll Shelby stands at the rear of the Ford GT40 Mark II prototype that Phil Hill and Chris Amon drove in the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans.Ford

BH: Was driving at Le Mans intimidating at all? When was your first race there?

CA: In addition to the previous two years with the Shelby team, I had been there as a reserve driver for the Sunbeam Alpine team in 1963. That was my first year racing in Europe. I don’t think I found it intimidating; it was more a love/hate relationship. In the weeks leading up to it, I found myself thinking, “Not Le Mans again!” When I got there, I absolutely loved it.

BH: Didn’t your car experience tire problems during the race? Did that contribute to the orchestrated photo finish?

CA: The tire problems we experienced occurred in the first two hours of the race. Bruce and I were contracted to Firestone and were the only one of the leading contenders running them. We lost the tread off one of the rears at least twice … [possibly] three times. In those first two hours, the decision — not an easy one – was made to switch brands [to Goodyear]. By then, we had lost a lot of time and so gave it everything to catch up. By the time the decision was made to slow the cars down [for the last lap finish] we were back in the lead and had been for some time.

BH: Is there any sense of nostalgia with Ford returning to Le Mans with its GT race cars, 50 years after you won the race? Will you be rooting for the cars to win their class?

CA: I certainly do feel something of a sense of nostalgia with Ford returning, not just for my own memories but also the memory of Bruce McLaren and what we shared together. Sadly he was only with us for a few short years following.

I certainly would like to see Ford win the GT class. I was excited when they announced their return, so I will be hoping for a great result.

Chris Amon: July 20, 1943 – August 3, 2016

A few months after this interview first appeared in Driving – and after the former driver saw the Ford GT win its class at Le Mans in June – Chris Amon passed away from natural causes at his home in New Zealand. It is telling of the often-cruel nature of motorsports of that period that, of the six Ford team drivers involved in that 1966 1-2-3 finish, he was the last one left. While Bucknum and Hutcherson passed away from natural causes, Miles, bitter at being denied the win yet a loyal team driver, was killed just two months later in a testing accident in Ford’s J-car – later to become the Mk IV race car that won Le Mans in 1967 – at Riverside Raceway in California. McLaren died in 1970, when his Can-Am race car crashed during testing at Goodwood in England. Hulme – F1 World Champion in 1967 – suffered a fatal heart attack at age 56 while competing in the 1992 Bathurst 1000 race in Australia.